Table of Contents for
Regular Expressions Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Version ebook / Retour

Cover image for bash Cookbook, 2nd Edition Regular Expressions Cookbook, 2nd Edition by Steven Levithan Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2012
  1. Cover
  2. Regular Expressions Cookbook
  3. Preface
  4. Caught in the Snarls of Different Versions
  5. Intended Audience
  6. Technology Covered
  7. Organization of This Book
  8. Conventions Used in This Book
  9. Using Code Examples
  10. Safari® Books Online
  11. How to Contact Us
  12. Acknowledgments
  13. 1. Introduction to Regular Expressions
  14. Regular Expressions Defined
  15. Search and Replace with Regular Expressions
  16. Tools for Working with Regular Expressions
  17. 2. Basic Regular Expression Skills
  18. 2.1. Match Literal Text
  19. 2.2. Match Nonprintable Characters
  20. 2.3. Match One of Many Characters
  21. 2.4. Match Any Character
  22. 2.5. Match Something at the Start and/or the End of a Line
  23. 2.6. Match Whole Words
  24. 2.7. Unicode Code Points, Categories, Blocks, and Scripts
  25. 2.8. Match One of Several Alternatives
  26. 2.9. Group and Capture Parts of the Match
  27. 2.10. Match Previously Matched Text Again
  28. 2.11. Capture and Name Parts of the Match
  29. 2.12. Repeat Part of the Regex a Certain Number of Times
  30. 2.13. Choose Minimal or Maximal Repetition
  31. 2.14. Eliminate Needless Backtracking
  32. 2.15. Prevent Runaway Repetition
  33. 2.16. Test for a Match Without Adding It to the Overall Match
  34. 2.17. Match One of Two Alternatives Based on a Condition
  35. 2.18. Add Comments to a Regular Expression
  36. 2.19. Insert Literal Text into the Replacement Text
  37. 2.20. Insert the Regex Match into the Replacement Text
  38. 2.21. Insert Part of the Regex Match into the Replacement Text
  39. 2.22. Insert Match Context into the Replacement Text
  40. 3. Programming with Regular Expressions
  41. Programming Languages and Regex Flavors
  42. 3.1. Literal Regular Expressions in Source Code
  43. 3.2. Import the Regular Expression Library
  44. 3.3. Create Regular Expression Objects
  45. 3.4. Set Regular Expression Options
  46. 3.5. Test If a Match Can Be Found Within a Subject String
  47. 3.6. Test Whether a Regex Matches the Subject String Entirely
  48. 3.7. Retrieve the Matched Text
  49. 3.8. Determine the Position and Length of the Match
  50. 3.9. Retrieve Part of the Matched Text
  51. 3.10. Retrieve a List of All Matches
  52. 3.11. Iterate over All Matches
  53. 3.12. Validate Matches in Procedural Code
  54. 3.13. Find a Match Within Another Match
  55. 3.14. Replace All Matches
  56. 3.15. Replace Matches Reusing Parts of the Match
  57. 3.16. Replace Matches with Replacements Generated in Code
  58. 3.17. Replace All Matches Within the Matches of Another Regex
  59. 3.18. Replace All Matches Between the Matches of Another Regex
  60. 3.19. Split a String
  61. 3.20. Split a String, Keeping the Regex Matches
  62. 3.21. Search Line by Line
  63. Construct a Parser
  64. 4. Validation and Formatting
  65. 4.1. Validate Email Addresses
  66. 4.2. Validate and Format North American Phone Numbers
  67. 4.3. Validate International Phone Numbers
  68. 4.4. Validate Traditional Date Formats
  69. 4.5. Validate Traditional Date Formats, Excluding Invalid Dates
  70. 4.6. Validate Traditional Time Formats
  71. 4.7. Validate ISO 8601 Dates and Times
  72. 4.8. Limit Input to Alphanumeric Characters
  73. 4.9. Limit the Length of Text
  74. 4.10. Limit the Number of Lines in Text
  75. 4.11. Validate Affirmative Responses
  76. 4.12. Validate Social Security Numbers
  77. 4.13. Validate ISBNs
  78. 4.14. Validate ZIP Codes
  79. 4.15. Validate Canadian Postal Codes
  80. 4.16. Validate U.K. Postcodes
  81. 4.17. Find Addresses with Post Office Boxes
  82. 4.18. Reformat Names From “FirstName LastName” to “LastName, FirstName”
  83. 4.19. Validate Password Complexity
  84. 4.20. Validate Credit Card Numbers
  85. 4.21. European VAT Numbers
  86. 5. Words, Lines, and Special Characters
  87. 5.1. Find a Specific Word
  88. 5.2. Find Any of Multiple Words
  89. 5.3. Find Similar Words
  90. 5.4. Find All Except a Specific Word
  91. 5.5. Find Any Word Not Followed by a Specific Word
  92. 5.6. Find Any Word Not Preceded by a Specific Word
  93. 5.7. Find Words Near Each Other
  94. 5.8. Find Repeated Words
  95. 5.9. Remove Duplicate Lines
  96. 5.10. Match Complete Lines That Contain a Word
  97. 5.11. Match Complete Lines That Do Not Contain a Word
  98. 5.12. Trim Leading and Trailing Whitespace
  99. 5.13. Replace Repeated Whitespace with a Single Space
  100. 5.14. Escape Regular Expression Metacharacters
  101. 6. Numbers
  102. 6.1. Integer Numbers
  103. 6.2. Hexadecimal Numbers
  104. 6.3. Binary Numbers
  105. 6.4. Octal Numbers
  106. 6.5. Decimal Numbers
  107. 6.6. Strip Leading Zeros
  108. 6.7. Numbers Within a Certain Range
  109. 6.8. Hexadecimal Numbers Within a Certain Range
  110. 6.9. Integer Numbers with Separators
  111. 6.10. Floating-Point Numbers
  112. 6.11. Numbers with Thousand Separators
  113. 6.12. Add Thousand Separators to Numbers
  114. 6.13. Roman Numerals
  115. 7. Source Code and Log Files
  116. Keywords
  117. Identifiers
  118. Numeric Constants
  119. Operators
  120. Single-Line Comments
  121. Multiline Comments
  122. All Comments
  123. Strings
  124. Strings with Escapes
  125. Regex Literals
  126. Here Documents
  127. Common Log Format
  128. Combined Log Format
  129. Broken Links Reported in Web Logs
  130. 8. URLs, Paths, and Internet Addresses
  131. 8.1. Validating URLs
  132. 8.2. Finding URLs Within Full Text
  133. 8.3. Finding Quoted URLs in Full Text
  134. 8.4. Finding URLs with Parentheses in Full Text
  135. 8.5. Turn URLs into Links
  136. 8.6. Validating URNs
  137. 8.7. Validating Generic URLs
  138. 8.8. Extracting the Scheme from a URL
  139. 8.9. Extracting the User from a URL
  140. 8.10. Extracting the Host from a URL
  141. 8.11. Extracting the Port from a URL
  142. 8.12. Extracting the Path from a URL
  143. 8.13. Extracting the Query from a URL
  144. 8.14. Extracting the Fragment from a URL
  145. 8.15. Validating Domain Names
  146. 8.16. Matching IPv4 Addresses
  147. 8.17. Matching IPv6 Addresses
  148. 8.18. Validate Windows Paths
  149. 8.19. Split Windows Paths into Their Parts
  150. 8.20. Extract the Drive Letter from a Windows Path
  151. 8.21. Extract the Server and Share from a UNC Path
  152. 8.22. Extract the Folder from a Windows Path
  153. 8.23. Extract the Filename from a Windows Path
  154. 8.24. Extract the File Extension from a Windows Path
  155. 8.25. Strip Invalid Characters from Filenames
  156. 9. Markup and Data Formats
  157. Processing Markup and Data Formats with Regular Expressions
  158. 9.1. Find XML-Style Tags
  159. 9.2. Replace Tags with
  160. 9.3. Remove All XML-Style Tags Except and
  161. 9.4. Match XML Names
  162. 9.5. Convert Plain Text to HTML by Adding

    and
    Tags

  163. 9.6. Decode XML Entities
  164. 9.7. Find a Specific Attribute in XML-Style Tags
  165. 9.8. Add a cellspacing Attribute to Tags That Do Not Already Include It
  166. 9.9. Remove XML-Style Comments
  167. 9.10. Find Words Within XML-Style Comments
  168. 9.11. Change the Delimiter Used in CSV Files
  169. 9.12. Extract CSV Fields from a Specific Column
  170. 9.13. Match INI Section Headers
  171. 9.14. Match INI Section Blocks
  172. 9.15. Match INI Name-Value Pairs
  173. Index
  174. Index
  175. Index
  176. Index
  177. Index
  178. Index
  179. Index
  180. Index
  181. Index
  182. Index
  183. Index
  184. Index
  185. Index
  186. Index
  187. Index
  188. Index
  189. Index
  190. Index
  191. Index
  192. Index
  193. Index
  194. Index
  195. Index
  196. Index
  197. Index
  198. Index
  199. About the Authors
  200. Colophon
  201. Copyright
  202. 9.7. Find a Specific Attribute in XML-Style Tags

    Problem

    Within an (X)HTML or XML file, you want to find tags that contain a specific attribute, such as id.

    This recipe covers several variations on the same problem. Suppose that you want to match each of the following types of strings using separate regular expressions:

    • Tags that contain an id attribute.

    • <div> tags that contain an id attribute.

    • Tags that contain an id attribute with the value my-id.

    • Tags that contain my-class within their class attribute value (even if there are multiple classes separated by whitespace).

    Solution

    Tags that contain an id attribute (quick and dirty)

    If you want to do a quick search in a text editor that lets you preview your results, the following (overly simplistic) regex might do the trick:

    <[^>]+\sid\b[^>]*>
    Regex options: Case insensitive
    Regex flavors: .NET, Java, JavaScript, PCRE, Perl, Python, Ruby

    Here’s a breakdown of the regex in free-spacing mode:

    <         # Start of the tag
    [^>]+     # Tag name, attributes, etc.
    \s id \b  # The target attribute name, as a whole word
    [^>]*     # The remainder of the tag, including the id attribute's value
    >         # End of the tag
    Regex options: Case insensitive, free-spacing
    Regex flavors: .NET, Java, XRegExp, PCRE, Perl, Python, Ruby

Tags that contain an id attribute (more reliable)

Unlike the regex just shown, this next take on the same problem supports quoted attribute values that contain literal > characters, and it doesn’t match tags that merely contain the word id within one of their attributes’ values:

<(?:[^>"']|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')+?\sid\s*=\s*("[^"]*"|'[^']*')↵
(?:[^>"']|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')*>
Regex options: Case insensitive
Regex flavors: .NET, Java, JavaScript, PCRE, Perl, Python, Ruby

In free-spacing mode:

<
(?: [^>"']             # Tag and attribute names, etc.
  | "[^"]*"            #   and quoted attribute values
  | '[^']*'
)+?
\s id                  # The target attribute name, as a whole word
\s* = \s*              # Attribute name-value delimiter
( "[^"]*" | '[^']*' )  # Capture the attribute value to backreference 1
(?: [^>"']             # Any remaining characters
  | "[^"]*"            #   and quoted attribute values
  | '[^']*'
)*
>
Regex options: Case insensitive, free-spacing
Regex flavors: .NET, Java, XRegExp, PCRE, Perl, Python, Ruby

This regex captures the id attribute’s value and surrounding quote marks to backreference 1. This allows you to use the value in code outside of the regex or in a replacement string. If you don’t need to reuse the value, you can switch to a noncapturing group or replace the entire \s*=\s*("[^"]*"|'[^']*') sequence with \b. The remainder of the regex will pick up the slack and match the id attribute’s value.

<div> tags that contain an id attribute

To search for a specific tag type, you need to add its name to the beginning of the regex and make a couple of other minor changes. In the following regex, we’ve added div\s after the opening <. The \s (whitespace) token ensures that we don’t match tags whose names merely start with the letters “div.” We know there will be a whitespace character following the tag name because the tags we’re searching for have at least one attribute (id). Additionally, the +?\sid sequence has been changed to *?\bid, so that the regex works when id is the first attribute within the tag and there are no additional separating characters (beyond the initial space) after the tag name:

<div\s(?:[^>"']|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')*?\bid\s*=\s*("[^"]*"|'[^']*')↵
(?:[^>"']|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')*>
Regex options: Case insensitive
Regex flavors: .NET, Java, JavaScript, PCRE, Perl, Python, Ruby

Here is the same thing in free-spacing mode:

<div \s                # Tag name and following whitespace character
(?: [^>"']             # Tag and attribute names, etc.
  | "[^"]*"            #   and quoted attribute values
  | '[^']*'
)*?
\b id                  # The target attribute name, as a whole word
\s* = \s*              # Attribute name-value delimiter
( "[^"]*" | '[^']*' )  # Capture the attribute value to backreference 1
(?: [^>"']             # Any remaining characters
  | "[^"]*"            #   and quoted attribute values
  | '[^']*'
)*
>
Regex options: Case insensitive, free-spacing
Regex flavors: .NET, Java, XRegExp, PCRE, Perl, Python, Ruby

Tags that contain an id attribute with the value “my-id”

Compared to the regex titled Tags that contain an id attribute (more reliable), this time we’ll remove the capturing group around the id attribute’s value since we know the value in advance. Specifically, the subpattern ("[^"]*"|'[^']*') has been replaced with (?:"my-id"|'my-id'):

<(?:[^>"']|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')+?\sid\s*=\s*(?:"my-id"|'my-id')↵
(?:[^>"']|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')*>
Regex options: Case insensitive
Regex flavors: .NET, Java, JavaScript, PCRE, Perl, Python, Ruby

And the free-spacing version:

<
(?: [^>"']     # Tag and attribute names, etc.
  | "[^"]*"    #   and quoted attribute values
  | '[^']*'
)+?
\s id          # The target attribute name, as a whole word
\s* = \s*      # Attribute name-value delimiter
(?: "my-id"    # The target attribute value
  | 'my-id' )  #   surrounded by single or double quotes
(?: [^>"']     # Any remaining characters
  | "[^"]*"    #   and quoted attribute values
  | '[^']*'
)*
>
Regex options: Case insensitive, free-spacing
Regex flavors: .NET, Java, XRegExp, PCRE, Perl, Python, Ruby

Going back to the (?:"my-id"|'my-id') subpattern for a second, you could alternatively avoid repeating “my-id” (at the cost of some efficiency) by using (["'])my-id\1. That uses a capturing group and backreference to ensure that the value starts and ends with the same type of quote mark.

Tags that contain “my-class” within their class attribute value

If the previous regular expressions haven’t already passed this threshold, this is where it becomes obvious that we’re pushing the boundary of what can sensibly be accomplished using a single regex. Splitting up the process using multiple regexes helps, so we’ll split this search into three parts. The first regex will match tags, the next will find the class attribute within it (and store its value within a backreference), and finally we’ll search within the value for my-class.

Find tags:

<(?:[^>"']|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')+>
Regex options: None
Regex flavors: .NET, Java, JavaScript, PCRE, Perl, Python, Ruby

Tip

Recipe 9.1 is dedicated to matching XML-style tags. It explains how the regex just shown works, and provides a number of alternatives with varying degrees of complexity and accuracy.

Next, follow the code in Recipe 3.13 to search within each match for a class attribute using the following regex:

^(?:[^>"']|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')+?\sclass\s*=\s*("[^"]*"|'[^']*')
Regex options: Case insensitive
Regex flavors: .NET, Java, JavaScript, PCRE, Perl, Python, Ruby

This captures the entire class value and its surrounding quote marks to backreference 1. Everything before the class attribute is matched using ^(?:[^>"']|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')+?, which matches quoted values in single steps to avoid finding the word “class” inside another attribute’s value. On the right side of the pattern, the match ends as soon as we reach the end of the class attribute’s value. Nothing after that is relevant to our search, so there’s no reason to match all the way to the end of the tag within which we’re searching.

The caret at the beginning of the regex anchors it to the start of the subject string. This doesn’t change what is matched, but it’s there so that if the regex engine can’t find a match starting at the beginning of the string, it doesn’t try again (and inevitably fail) at each subsequent character position.

Finally, if both of the previous regexes found matches, use the following pattern to search within backreference 1 of each match found by the second regex:

["'\s]my-class["'\s]
Regex options: None
Regex flavors: .NET, Java, JavaScript, PCRE, Perl, Python, Ruby

Since classes are separated by whitespace, my-class must be bordered on both ends by either whitespace or a quote mark. If it weren’t for the fact that class names can include hyphens, you could use word boundary tokens instead of the two character classes here. However, hyphens create word boundaries, and thus \bmy-class\b would match within not-my-class.

Discussion

The section of this recipe already covers the details of how these regular expressions work, so we’ll avoid rehashing it all here. Remember that regular expressions are often not the ideal solution for markup searches, especially those that reach the complexity described in this recipe. Before using these regular expressions, consider whether you’d be better served by an alternative solution, such as XPath, a SAX parser, or a DOM. We’ve included these regexes since it’s not uncommon for people to try to pull off this kind of thing, but don’t say you weren’t warned. Hopefully this has at least helped to show some of the issues involved in markup searches, and helped you avoid even more naïve solutions.

Tip

The regular expressions in this recipe are written with the expectation that attribute values are always enclosed in single or double quotes. Unquoted attribute values are not supported.

See Also

Recipe 9.8 is the conceptual inverse of this recipe, and finds tags that do not contain a specific attribute.

Recipe 9.1 shows how to match all XML-style tags while balancing trade-offs including tolerance for invalid markup.

Techniques used in the regular expressions in this recipe are discussed in Chapter 2. Recipe 2.3 explains character classes. Recipe 2.5 explains anchors. Recipe 2.6 explains word boundaries. Recipe 2.8 explains alternation. Recipe 2.9 explains grouping. Recipe 2.10 explains backreferences. Recipe 2.12 explains repetition.